Probe abuses against OFWs, child porno, not mauling of comedian

You can’t move so fast that you try to change the mores faster than people can accept it. That doesn’t mean you do nothing, but it means that you do the things that need to be done according to priority.” — ELEANOR ROOSEVELT

By Alex P. Vidal

Vhong Navarro

We became a laughing stock in the world in 2009 when we wasted taxpayers money and time in the senate hearing tackling the case of the lover of a famous female cosmetics surgeon and several showbiz girls and models which became known as the “Hayden Kho video sex scandal.”

Aside from being romantically linked to the celebrity lady surgeon, nothing can be said to justify the misuse of public funds for the senate inquiry involving Kho, a private medical practitioner; henceforth, there was no logical reason why taxpayers money should be wasted.

A sex scandal involving a private person and his conquests who were all adults was far from being a national concern. It’s mind-boggling how the sex ruckus was allowed to be tackled in the august halls over other urgent national issues while most people couldn’t make both ends meet and were wallowing in abject poverty and lack of opportunities.

SECURITY

The issue did not threaten national security; it did not involve the welfare of the nation; it was not about classroom, water and rice shortage, massive graft and corruption, economic and political stability, health and environmental problems. Yet, the sex scandal inquiry authored by Sen. Bong Revilla pushed through. This explains the kind of mentality and quality of senators we elected.

And now, there is a possibility that the senate hearing zarzuela will be repeated again. Senator Jinggoy Estrada, Revilla’s former showbiz colleague and co-accused in a plunder case filed by the Office of the Ombudsman in relation to the multi-billion pesos “pork barrel” scam, is poised to calling for a senate inquiry regarding the mauling incident that involved his comedian “best friend” Vhong Navarro.

Aside from being Estrada’s “best friend” and a known sitcom mainstay and noontime TV show host, Navarro has no significant contribution or involvement in government or public service for that matter that will justify why his mauling should be given importance over other more pressing national issues.

ELECTED

In a nation where public servants are easily elected into office based on popularity and name-recall, it isn’t far-fetched for the now famous Navarro to join his former showbiz ilk in government via electoral process once he decides to enter politics given our defective electoral system.

But the real cacophony is not only about scoundrels joining the government, but the excessive and blatant misuse of public funds and government time for useless and unproductive public hearings both in the lower and upper chambers of the House which are only always used in aid of pogi points for grandstanding politicians.

These unnecessary senate and congressional inquiries, a myopic priority, also send a wrong signal to the young generation. Intelligent citizens hooked on social media have become sophisticated and incandescent; and are now the force to reckon with in molding public opinion.

Our elected officials should now zero in on the plight of our OFWs in Malaysia and other countries in the Middle East who are being abused, harassed and murdered. Foreign and local pedophiles have forged an alliance to perpetuate child pornography via internet as recently reported. Graft and corruption, rice smuggling, arrival of powerful drug cartels in the country, oil spill, power and gas hike, among other critical issues.